<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

The consensus is that plaster of paris should be just fine. It's just
calcified gypsum in white, powdery form, used as a base for gypsum
plasters,  and as an additive of lime plasters.

A chemist wrote that it is GF. He also said that it's possible that they
could add flour paste to it, but highly unlikely.

Pure plaster of paris is safe, as it is a mineral.
It is however a strong irritant to the skin.

I cannot imagine a school project involving
plaster that does not require gloves, apron,
dust masks and eye protection. Unless the plaster
has already been mixed , molded, and hardened.

There would be some slight chance that flour
could be used to make separating the objects
from the molds easier. (If the project is
to carve/paint molded plaster).

Things like patching plaster, spackling compound,
sheetrock mud, are unknowns. Not that it has to
do with gluten, but as an example of the variations
in patching plaster; I used the same brand but from
two different boxes/batches of patching plaster
on a doorway in my house. Under artificial light
it looks fine, but during the day one area looks
white and one grey. So, one evening I looked at
it with a black light. One batch glows and
the other does not. Different ingredients and
no requirement to label as such.

There is somewhere in the archive a substitute
for the flour/salt modeling goop that schools
sometimes want to use. So called clay modeling
compounds, especially the colored ones are
to be avoided also.

If the project  does put dust in the air
and your child is given an alternate
project he/she should still wear a dust
mask if in the same area as the other children

Someone else suggested...
Have your child use gloves, when participating in class. That way, you
don't have to worry about what is in the item they're touching.


The reader's digest of it all is that I asked the teacher what they were
going to do with it...and she said that the kids weren't going to touch
it (probably good based on the harshness)....that they were just going
to pour it into a mold or something like that....


soooo....I hope this helps others!!!!!

Andrea